


you're like a house in a storm

by hope27



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-02-03 03:05:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1728683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hope27/pseuds/hope27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver's thoughts when he hears that Slade has Felicity in 2x23.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you're like a house in a storm

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I've had this written since early last week but real life has just gotten crazy and then with the holiday weekend in the states, I decided to hold off on posting it. A few days after the season finale, I was inspired by a gifset to write Oliver's POV for this episode and that's what this became. Huge thanks to anthfan for looking it over for me and listening to me groan about titles.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! As always I LOVE to hear what you think so let me know! :) Thank you so much for all of your support! It means more than I can say! :D
> 
> Originally posted on tumblr.

It was part of the plan - the plan he had come up with and put into motion. He knew this was the outcome that was expected, but hearing Slade’s smile as he growled that he had Felicity - his Felicity - caused the air to be sucked from his chest, his heart to trip over the words as they rattled around in his head.

_She’s quite lovely. Your Felicity._

A part of him had wanted her to run; to back out. A desperate, minuscule part of him wanted her to go against everything she was and he knew her to be and to put herself first - her safety first - and run the second he left the mansion.

But he knew she wouldn’t. Felicity had never run.

There was a time when she had questioned her place in his life and on the team. But the truth of the matter was, she was the bravest of them all. Her heart guided them when two battle weary soldiers couldn’t think past the next attack. She led them through upheavals and put her life on the line more than once - willing and able to face off against some of the deadliest enemies of Starling City.

Slade was different though. Knowing she was in Slade’s hands - hands he knew from experience could inflict so much pain - tore at his heart. She couldn’t get hurt. The plan needed to work and he trusted her to be able to do her part, but he didn’t know if he could survive if anything happened to her.

Just before the line was disconnected, he heard a gasping cry from her lips. “Oliver…”

Those three syllables slipped off her tongue and then he was running, talking to Sara over the comms and letting her know where he was going; telling her he needed to do this alone, and there was a plan.

Her response was washed out by the blood pounding in his ears. Dark shadows crept into his mind, a figure resembling Shado shaking her head at him as if asking him how he could do it again.

 _No,_ he cried in his head. _No. Nothing was going to happen to her._

If it did, he knew he wouldn’t survive. Not this time. Not losing her.

As he ran, he thought of the last time a madman had Felicity and the absolute rage that had consumed him when he’d heard her soft whimpers over the phone as the Count taunted him. He hadn’t been in control then. There had been no plan and all Oliver could do was show up and pray to get there in time; to save her.

Watching her be held by the Count, as a human shield, a lethal dose of Vertigo in his hand ready to stab into her neck had been the moment he’d realized how important she’d become to him; the moment things began to click into place in his mind. Somehow in the year and a half that he’d known her, she’d broken past his walls and carved out a place in his heart, shining her light and beating back the shadows that threatened to overwhelm him. She’d called him a hero when no one saw him as anything but a dangerous vigilante, and she’d stood by his side when the city and his world had been falling to the ground.

She was always there. Standing tall, strong, immovable - beside him. He gleaned strength from her more often than he realized.

Now, he saw how much he relied on her. Just her very presence could ease his worries and banish the darkness from the island that still lingered in his soul. Her light brought him light and her smile made him smile. It wasn’t often that he felt that lightness; that ease, but when she was around, he felt like he could breathe.

The tracker on Felicity’s phone led him to her and as he wove his way through the mass of pipes and plumbing, he heard Slade’s voice echoing off the walls trying to get in his head.

Steeling himself, he let Felicity’s words come back to him.

_You are not alone. And I believe in you._

The moment she came into view, he could barely breath. Slade held her immobile against him, his blade pressed against her neck as her eyes found his and he saw the fear as well as the relief that washed through them.

Even with a blade to her throat, she still believed in him. He soaked up that belief and strength, returning it to her as best he could.

He began to distract Slade, talking about Shado - trying to take him off-guard. When he dropped Felicity to the ground, Oliver breathed a little easier, but the blade was never far from her skin.

When it happened, it seemed as if time slowed, Felicity once again in Slade’s clutches as he ranted and raved about the island and Shado and losing the one he loved. 

In the end, Oliver had the last word, and when he saw Felicity pull the syringe from her pocket and jab it into Slade’s neck, a weight on his chest lifted.

She fell to the side and his eyes flicked to her, catching her gaze as she pushed to her hands. He could see her shallow breaths but she gave him a quick nod and then it was just him and Slade.

Man against man. Friend against friend. Brother against brother.

His body ached as they fought, teacher and student, a perfect match for each other now.

Slade begged him to kill him; wanted him to kill him, but he knew that if he did it, Slade would still have won.

So when he saw his chance, he reached for his bow as he pulled to his feet and loosed two trick arrows, securing him to the concrete pillar.

He stared at his former friend - a man he had once called his brother - and his heart ached. For everything that they both had lost in this fight.

The last of his strength was slowly slipping from him when he heard her voice. His eyes flew up, finding her limping towards him, tears streaming down her cheeks but relief written on her face.

With one arm, he reached for her as he dropped his bow with the other, and pulled her into his body.

She crashed against him, and somehow they managed to stay standing as he held on to her tightly, the feel of her trembling form under his fingers reassuring him that she was alive - that he hadn’t lost her; that their plan had worked.

“You did it,” she breathed into his chest, her words choked with emotion and her voice thick but he heard them and shook his head.

“No, _we_ did it,” he replied softly, one hand reach up to slip over her familiar ponytail now half undone from the events of the night.

She nodded against his chest and took a deep breath and he did the same, taking her in; every contour of her body against his, every rise and fall of her chest and every beat of her heart. 

Closing his eyes, he let himself hold her. He’d done the unthinkable tonight. He’d actually put her in danger; given her up to an enemy he knew he couldn’t defeat alone. And she’d agreed to it; had the strength and courage to not only take down a monster but give him the chance to prove to himself that there was another way.

His hands tightened around her shoulder, turning his head into her hair and ghosting his lips across her temple. He felt her react and his words from earlier played over and over in his head.

_I love you._

He couldn’t deny it. It was the truth. He hadn’t meant for it all to come out but standing there with her looking up at him, begging him to let her come with him, to be with him - it was too much. Staring into her eyes, it was as if that wall he’d put up between his feelings and her crumbled into dust.

He could no more hold those words back than he could stop breathing.

They rose from the deepest part of his heart where he kept all his truths. He knew he’d have to lock them back up again; knew that there was still too much of him that still had demons to fight. She deserved better and he wanted to be that - but he wasn’t there yet.

So for a few more seconds, he let himself hold her; breath her in, listen to the beats of her heart and feel her breath upon his skin, hoping that for the time being, it would be enough.

It had to be enough until that day when he could give all of himself to her. But his heart...he knew his heart was already hers.


End file.
